Reacting to calls by youth group in Bayelsa State, which questioned his purported donations to the Osun government, Senator representing Bayelsa East at the National Assembly, Mr Ben Murray-Bruce, has maintained that there are also less privileged people in other parts of the country and not just in Bayelsa State.
Bruce who said this in a radio interview aired on Classic FM, Lagos, Sunday, justified his donations to the state, saying: “I have so many adopted children in different parts of the country not just in Bayelsa. I have children who I have seen through university education and who were previously selling pure water on the streets. In faraway Zamfara, I have children from less privileged homes. There are poor children everywhere in Nigeria, not just in Nigeria. It is my money and I choose to give to who I want. I have chosen to give to the less privileged and so it doesn’t matter where they come from to me.”
It would be recalled that Senator Bruce had reportedly pledged to donate half of his wardrobe alliance to workers in Osun State in view of the challenged faced by the state government in meeting those obligations, a decision which brought him under fire recently from some sections of his state.
In a statement, the Bayelsa Youth Alliance, (BAYA) had asked Senator Ben Bruce to donate his entire salary to poor people in his Akasa village instead of donating a paltry half of his wardrobe allowance to widows in his community.
“In Osun, there over about forty thousand workers. In your home state, there are about 800,000 unemployed youths and in Akasa, where you were born, there is 90 percent youth unemployment. Osun workers are waiting for salary, there is hope for them, but in Akasa, thousands have no jobs and there is no home for them, ”the statement signed by Werenipre Akobo, the group’s Chairman stated.
According to the Bayelsa Youth Alliance, (BAYA), Akasa, where Ben Bruce comes from has no drinkable water, no adequate electricity and no toilet facilities for most of the homes.
“In Akasa, people drink from the same water they urinate and bath. There are no jobs. People cannot farm in Akasa. The land is polluted due to the impact of oil spillage. People die daily here and hope is far-fetched. What Ben Bruce said is like Congo Republic offering to give loan to Britain.”
Akobo said that instead of offering half of his wardrobe allowance to Osun workers, Senator Bruce should rise up to the agonizing poverty, diseases, want, hunger and starvation that is the lot of his backwater community.
“We call on you, Senator Ben Bruce to stop seeing the real issue of underdevelopment as entertainment. If you are so kind, what efforts have you made to alleviate the sufferings of our people in Akasa? You have a TV station that 99 percent of your own people cannot watch because of poverty. If you are serious, please come home and donate your entire one year salary to your long suffering community where hunger, starvation and hopelessness are etched on the faces of thousands of people in Akasa,’ Akobo stated.
Speaking in the interview, Bruce pointed out the problems with the leadership of the country bordered on ostentation, even as he expressed support for the administration President Muhammadu Buhari, in tackling the problem.
“I know Buhari to be a humble and simple person. I believe he will sort it out. It’s not about APC, PDP, Labour Party, APGA or any other party issue. This is about the country. We must also come together to help the country at this critical point in time. Four years is too long to wait before we start breaking our heads again. Nigeria must succeed. Our leaders must learn to put aside their ostentatious lifestyles and private jets and come down to reality. We are lucky there’s no revolution out there yet. But we as leaders should start that revolution by reflecting on our lifestyles too,” Bruce said.
